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If you want to be at the center of controversy these days, here how you do it: become a dad, have a daughter, style her hair, then sit back and watch the fireworks. You might get hearty applause because you're bustin' stereotypes and representing the new generation of involved dads. On the other hand, you could get internet rocks thrown at you because why should you get credit for something that moms do thanklessly each and every day?

If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's one story. And here's the other.

Idiotic racist comments from the first story aside, I understand the conflict. I get it that moms do these things each day without applause, and if a man does it, isn't it just as much his job? Yes, yes it is. I completely agree, and so do you -- if you subscribe to that premise. The reality, however, is that we're far from internalizing that premise as a society. Applauding such acts, as mundane and everyday as they are, is our collective way of telling the world that more of this should happen. Not in the moralistic sense, but in the "why the hell don't we see more of this" sense. Sure, one guy ends up getting a frustratingly disproportionate amount credit for one small everyday thing, but I don't care about him. I care that the applause sends a signal to the greater world that we should encourage more of this, because there certainly is a shortage. We should applaud now, so that dads doing their daughters' hair, or moms throwing a football with their sons, or dads taking over the kitchen is no big deal, as it should be. So no, I don't think that dad deserved a standing ovation for making a perfect bun. But I think society needed that applause to push us all in the direction that we should be barreling toward.

Actually, change that. He does deserve a standing ovation, from me at least. Because seriously: